WILD DUCK SHOOTING ON PRESERVES 123 



On some of the small preserves where the ducks fly 

 quickly out of bounds the shooting cannot be long con- 

 tinued or done oftener than once a week, since the ducks 

 are disturbed by the firing near their safe refuge and soon 

 become afraid to venture down to it. 



We have, however, an abundance of room in America, 

 and since the lands suitable for ducks are inexpensive 

 many preserves can be started quickly and cheaply. 

 When the ducks have several waters, a half mile or more 

 apart, it will be an easy matter to have good flight shoot- 

 ing and at the same time to keep the birds within bounds. 

 They will return to the safe pond when shot at, and, of 

 course, they should not be too often driven out of it. 

 There is more danger of the ducks becoming too tame 

 where they are properly looked after than there is of 

 their deserting. 



The methods of preserving wild ducks and of shooting 

 them on very small preserves may seem to be artificial. 

 They are, more or less so, necessarily, but on large places 

 the shooting need not differ much, if any, from the shoot- 

 ing at wild ducks in any good duck region. The shoot- 

 ing will be flight shooting at birds passing overhead, and 

 the birds reared on the place, if they be properly handled 

 and not overfed, will travel as fast and as high as the 

 wildest ducks which come to join them at the times of 

 the annual migration. Those who would criticise the 

 shooting on preserves as artificial should remember that 

 the duck shooting, which they enjoy, over decoys, is even 

 more artificial, since the game is lured to the guns by the 

 live or artificial decoys, and the shooting is far easier 

 and, to my mind, far less interesting than the shooting 

 at the swifter marks is. 



